The St. Louis Cardinals jumped on Francisco Liriano early for three runs in the first and the Pirate offense couldn’t repeat their 12-run barrage from a night ago in a 6-1 loss on Saturday night.
Liriano started off his night allowing three straight hits –including a lead-off single by Matt Carpenter, who was the fifth player in-a-row to lead-off the game with a hit — and five of the first seven Cardinals to reach base in route to a Pirates 3-0 hole after a half inning.
“I tried to use whatever I had,” said Liriano. “I felt like I didn’t have my stuff tonight and I was missing my spot on a couple of pitches. You also have to give some credit to the hitters, I made some good pitches down and away and they found a way to hit it. After the first inning, I just tried to locate my pitches and my guys behind me made some plays for me. I just tried to find a way to get them out.”
After allowing a lead-off single to Cardinal starter, Joe Kelly to start the second, Liriano retired 13-straight before allowing a solo-home run to Yadier Molina.
“I think there was some technical difficulties in the first,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “It was really just one mechanical glitch that he was battling with through the first inning. He settled down in the second inning and got on a nice role. He pitched two-hit ball the last four-five innings he was out there, so he settled and gave us a chance to win a game.”
The first inning proved to be the dealbreaker as the Pirate offense was unable to repeat last night’s 12-run output. They would tally one run on six hits against Kelly, but had many chances to get back into the game. The Pirates had a runner in scoring position in four of Kelly’s six innings of work, but a lone run via a Russell Martin bases-loaded walk would be the only damage.
The Cardinal bullpen — who couldn’t get a Pirate out last night — threw three no-hit innings to close the game out. Jeanmar Gomez finished the game for the Pirates, throwing the final three innings allowing one hit — a Jhonny Peralta two-run homer in the ninth — and striking out three.
Final Score: Cardinals 6, Pirates 1.
Starter’s Lines
Liriano: 6 IN, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K’s,1 HR. 105 Pitches (69 Strikes).
Kelly: 5 1/3 IN, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K’s, 1 HP. 107 Pitches (60 Strikes).
These two will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at 1:35 for the rubber match of this 3-game weekend series.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) Edinson Volquez (PIT): 9-12, 5.71 ERA in 2013
(RHP) Adam Wainwright (STL): 1-0, 0.00 ERA
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(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
